Cervical cancer vaccination rates at their lowest level in a decacde

ABC NEWS (Australia)

Megan Smith is a lead researcher in the Cancer Council's cervical cancer and HPV group. She says it's still not clear what's driving a decline in vaccination rates.

Transcript

00:00stories like Christine's are absolutely heart-wrenching and that's why it's so

00:07upsetting to see declines in HPV vaccination HPV vaccination is given in

00:12high school typically in the first year of high school and we've seen rates

00:16drop in the most recent year reported on in 2024 to by about three percentage

00:22points so about it's about 78% now in boys and about 81% now in girls roughly

00:28and that's much down on the highs that we've achieved in previous years reaching

00:32almost 90% but the data doesn't tell us for example are more parents deciding

00:38against HPV vaccination actively or are they not getting the information they

00:43need to make a decision perhaps you know they wouldn't might need it in a simpler

00:47language or in a format that's more convenient or in a language other than

00:52English or is that information never getting to them in the first place but

00:56there are other ways that parents can catch up their children obviously going

01:00to see your GP is a good one but local pharmacies can deliver the HPV vaccine as

01:06as people would probably be familiar that they can offer covert and flu vaccines

01:10people can get the HPV vaccine and it's free up until the age of 25 so it's not

01:17good to wait until 25 obviously it's most effective when it's given before 15

01:21which is why these are the rates we're talking about but it is free up until

01:27that age and so it's really important to take that opportunity while it's there

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